June 9-17 St John USVI Trip Report:
Will try to keep short and simple (yeah right). Stayed at Tesseract villa in upper Chocolate Hole, great view of St Thomas, St Croix and even PR one day. One of the 3 bedrooms had AC but did not need as there was always a slight breeze, changed my attitude on must-have AC. Spacious place, an older home but well maintained, would not hesitate to stay there again. Good size pool, lots of decks, laundry, nice area, felt safe. Master had great garden shower. PHPV’s were wonderful to deal with from start to finish. Lots of Iguanas and birds.
Beaches rated from awesome to very good for sand/scenery: Gibney, Francis, Maho, Cinnamon, Hawsknest, Waterlemon. (Didn’t attempt Trunk as drove by a full parking lot every morning at 9:30am, yikes)
Beaches rated from awesome to very good for snorkeling: Waterlemon, Cinnamon, Gibney, Maho, Hawksnest, Francis.
Beach bar/lunch spots: Quiet Mon, The Beach Bar, Woody’s, Skinny Legs.
Dinner restaurants: Panini Beach, Banana Deck, High Tide (old Rumbalaya), The Beach Bar, Woody’s.
Favorite day was trip on Island Spirit catamaran out of the Westin to Lovango cay for snorkeling, then Jost Van Dyke for lunch at Foxy’s, and an hour at White Bay. Boat was big, fun and beautiful, could have used more time on White Bay, next time may take the ferry, would have had more time on the beach and saved a lot of money. Not complaining though, sailing was a blast. Sand reminded me of Shoal Bay East on Anguilla, almost. Tip: Soggy Dollar was soooo packed; walk down to One Love bar, it was empty and very cool. We waited for 25 mins to get a painkiller at Soggy Dollar. Guessing morning and evening on JVD is quiet, the afternoons are a party.
Met several fun couples, Dan and Judy from Philly we spent many an hour at The Beach Bar discussing travel, snorkeling and life, if you guys read this, thanks for the great times, keep in touch!
Rented jeep from L&L, they were friendly and efficient, very easy process. The cost was a bit of a shocker after all said and done but they are all the same price, next time may consider shaving a few days off the rental although we love the freedom to explore. Steep roads were interesting but fun, be careful on the steep roads during a steady rain, trust me!
Have to say parking was almost non-existent in Cruz Bay, I’m sure you regulars have some undisclosed secrets, took us 5 nights of paying the guy $10 at the lot behind Wharfside Village before we found the outer-limit, hard to find free street spots. Dan/Judy helped us once they figured out we were paying. I’m sure if more parking was added, with it would come too much congestion so they can leave it as-is in my opinion. Construction noise was almost everywhere except in the national park and in Coral Bay, didn’t bother us the first few mornings but have to say by end of the week I could understand some of the locals we talked to about noise and over-development. Finally, mosquitoes, we did pretty good staying on top of them with the spray but they are pretty vicious little fellas.
In closing, beautiful island, teaming with life on land and in water. Ton of history everywhere can see and feel. Lots to do on STJ, we felt like we hit it pretty hard every hour of every day. We will be back.
Our next trip takes us back to Anguilla in March to recover from the St John party!! Hard to pick a favorite between the 2 islands, apples and oranges as they say. I could easily hit each of them every other year and die a happy man.
Hope to have photos to share soon………….
Dave/Steph from Iowa <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />
